Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the field of physiologic monitoring. The disclosure relates to systems and methods for reliable measurement of one or more physiologic parameters of a subject. In particular, the disclosure relates to aspects of systems and methods for unobtrusively monitoring electrophysiological activity and/or related information from an ambulatory subject in an uncontrolled setting.
Background
As chronic diseases continue to proliferate throughout the world, there is a heightened need to treat such conditions in a cost effective manner. Remote monitoring of patients with cardiovascular diseases (heart failure, post stroke, etc.), diabetes, kidney failure, COPD, obesity, neurological disorders (depression, Alzheimer's disease, migraines, stress disorders, etc.), arthritis, among other ailments, for purposes of treatment or prevention of such diseases may substantially improve patient outcomes.
Although physiologic monitoring is performed today for a range of purposes, existing technologies are not without shortcomings.
There is a need to measure physiologic parameters of subjects, reliably, simply, and without cables. As the proliferation of mobile and remote medicine increases, simplified and unobtrusive means for monitoring the physiologic parameters of a patient become more important.
Patient compliance is critical to the success of such systems and is often directly correlated to the ease of use and unobtrusiveness of the monitoring solution used.
Existing monitoring systems are often prone to false alarms, usage related failures, unreliable user interfaces, cumbersome interfaces, artifact or electromagnetic interference (EMI) related interference, etc. Such problems decrease productivity of using these systems, can result in lost data, and lead to dissatisfaction on the part of both the subject being monitored and the practitioners monitoring the subject. In the case of a hospital setting, the continual drone of alarms can lead to alarm fatigue and decreased productivity.
Long term compliance of subjects may suffer due to uncomfortable interfaces with monitoring devices, involved maintenance or change-over of disposables, painful or itchy reactions to materials in the devices, and the like.
More reliable, redundant, and user friendly systems are needed that can provide valuable patient data even when operating with limited supervision, expert input, or user manipulation.